My Winter Projects

So I did a post on Daxton's winter projects.... so I thought I would show some of the things I've worked on this winter too :)

Thirty One Banner...
So I had my first booth at a craft fair selling Thirty One about a month ago and needed something with my name on it to hang on my tables.  Pink and blue are big Thirty One colors so I went with a pendent banner using those colors. I also gave the clothes pins a coat of silver paint to give them a little extra shine :)

Wooden Letters
I love painting and have made these letters in the past for important peoples babies (check them out here). At the end of the month I'll get a new great nephew so I made these for his Noahs Ark themed nursery :)

NOEL banner
I saw this idea on Pinterest and new instantly that it would look awesome hanging on our mirror in our living room. I have sort of a rustic/tradition Christmas thing going on and burlap fits right in with that. This was pretty labor intensive (had to print each letter to use as a stencil, cut the burlap, paint the letters onto the burlap with multiple coats, and hot glue around twine). It may have been a pain but is now one of my favorite decorations!

Christmas Card Holder
 So I had the traditional Christmas card holder but was never a fan of it. It always got too full and you couldn't see the cards easily without knocking them all off. So when I saw this idea on pinterest I knew I had to do it. Simply hole punch each card and put them on a metal ring, tie a bow on, and now you have a precious flip book of all your Christmas cards. I love being able to flip through the cards and plan on keeping them through the years!

Napkin Rings

We had a ladies Gala at my moms church and our decoration for our table was a rustic/traditional theme so I volunteered to make napkin rings for us using paper towel tube, burlap, twine, and ribbon! Super easy and they turned out super cute!

So those are my mommy projects I've done over the past few months! Best part is that other than the painted name, they didn't cost me a thing because I already had all the materials!  I love having time to be creative again!

Winter Projects

With Daniel traveling so much and the weather being nice and cold we have filled our days with lots of Christmas time projects!  This post is going to be pretty picture heavy but I wanted to share some of our projects... and maybe give you some ideas of things to do too :)
Oh and best part about these projects..... between all of them I think I only spent a total of less than $5!  My projects are all pretty spur of the moment so I make use with the things I already have at home :)

Nutcracker
This little guy has been my favorite project. It was a mommy/son project so we both worked on it together. I found the wooden nutcracker at hobby lobby for 50% off, had acrylic paint, and then got a glaze to put over it to make it nice and shiny. I'm pretty sure painting a little figurine like this will be a new tradition for me and Dax.

Salt Dough Ornaments
Salt dough is so much fun and you can do so much with it. I found this recipe on pinterest and just cut it in half (it was set to make 12).
4 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups water
I let Dax help me do all the measuring and pouring and rolling the dough out on the cookie sheet. It was a pretty messy project but lots of fun! After you get all your shapes cut out don't forget to poke holes in the ornament to help air to go out.... or they'll puff up and you have to try to fix the damage later. Trust me... learned that one the hard way. Then you just put them in the oven for 20-25 at 300. And let them cool. I used acrylic paint because it tends to last longer and then covered them with a glaze again to make them nice and shiny.

We made all the cute hand print ones (and even a footprint one.... but my precious dog decided to eat it.... don't get me started) and then I let Dax have his way. He was really into a tiny toy dinosaur that day so we pushed that into a round piece of dough (top left on the picture about) and then he "walked" the dino around on the donut looking one (top right) and made footprint in it. He loved this!

(the left over salt dough made for great pretend "pancakes" )

Nature Paintings

If you've read the blog at all you know me and Dax both love nature. So we used a little acrylic paint and glitter to make a few ornaments and pictures for the walls.

The next day we painted glue on all of the final projects and used our fingers to sprinkle glitter on all of them! They all turned out really pretty and look great as Christmas decorations!

Glass Ball Ornament

I have a ton of extra ball ornaments that we didn't use on our tree so we decided to paint one with acrylic paint and at a cute bow on the top to hang on our tree. Dax was really proud of this project

 Gift Wrapping

In every class I've ever taught the kids have loved getting to wrap presents. So the other day I let Dax wrap a gift for his daddy. He thought he was so big and had so much fun! I let him do it all, the cutting, taping, folding, put a bow on, and even sign the tag. 

If you have any fun winter projects I would love to hear them!!!

Travel with a Tod

8 + hour drive in a car, plus 6 days in a completely new environment completely different from what he's use to had me a little nervous..,
but luckily, things went super smooth. Before leaving on the cruise I found some wonderful blog post on cruising with toddlers that were super helpful giving me some ideas of things to bring with us to make our trip a bit easier. I added some things too, so  I thought I would share some of the must have things to pack that made our trip drastically less stressful.

* Car activities!!!

For the long car ride I made a few different activities for him and also brought a long a couple things that he really likes and I know will keep his attention. One activity I made was small wooden blocks with magnetic tape on the back (top picture) that stuck to a cookie sheet. The blocks were new for him (he got them at Christmas but I hadn't got the out yet for him to play with) so he was pretty excited about that... and the fact that they would stick to the sheet if he picked it up and shook it as hard as he could. I also put magnetic tape on the back of some shapes I cut out of construction paper. He really enjoyed those a lot more than I thought. Next time I'll laminate them first because they got pretty bent up, but they were a last minute addition so i didn't have time. I also had felt pieces from the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar that I had made for my class so I added some magnetic tape to the back of those and he played with them as well (in the last picture you can see the cupcake from the story didn't quite make it back into the bag...it's still hangin out on his shirt). I just kept each activity in a Ziploc baggy inside my "car bag" and pulled them out when I saw him getting antsy.

* Snacks Snacks Snacks!
So over the span of our entire vacation Dax ate way more snacks that I would normally like him to eat (especially processed snacks.. ugh). But, it was vacation... and you have to get by with a toddler in some way. I brought a long some new, different snacks that he hadn't had before, as well as some of his favorites. In most of our pictures from the cruise he can be seen with a snack in his hand. Some times I think it was a security thing for him but I'm ok with that for just one week.

*New cup!
So this is sort of completely random but I wanted to make sure he would drink tons of water when we were going to be in the sun a lot. He loves water in the first place, but I wanted to make it super exciting to drink. We bought some adult water bottles (the kind with the sports lid that you can squirt out of) and he thought those were the coolest things in the world to drink out of. I had no worries whatsoever about him getting dehydrated!

*Diaper Sacks!

These things are AWESOME! I just happened to wonder upon some in the store before we left and thought I would give them a try. They're just the right size for a diaper and are baby powder scented. Dax may be a little boy but he can smell like a man (tmi... maybe) so I was worried what would happen if we had to end up changing a diaper on the side of the road, or even in our room on the cruise (those rooms are pretty small and I did NOT want to be locked in a small space with the smell of a dirty diaper). You just throw the diaper in these bags and tie them up and you never smell ANYTHING but baby powder! They're awesome! I'll be using these regularly that for sure!

*Stroller!
Our stroller was a life saver for sure! It made the entire process of boarding the ship and going through customs SO much easier. It also saved my back by keeping me from carrying my chunky boy around on the ship all the time. We loved just going for walks around the entire ship and people watching with the stroller. If he was in his stroller... he was happy. We have the Combi Cosmo Stroller  (I've mention before how much I love it) and it was the perfect size for the cruise. It's not much bigger than an umbrella stroller, but has the ability for him to lay down and be covered by a sun shade unlike most umbrella strollers. It also folds up pretty small, a must for storing in a small cruise ship cabin.

*Cup Leash!

This isn't the exact one we have but it's pretty similar. These are wonderful! There were so many times that I"m certain we would have lost a cup and not known about it without our cup leash. They wrap around any size cup and you can hook it to the stroller to keep it from falling on the ground. Wonderful! We also used it a lot when he was younger to keep toys from falling on the ground while sitting in highchairs at restaurants. It kept us from losing toys and saved Dax from a lot of germs in his mouth. We got ours at Buy Buy Baby but I have recently seen pins on Pinterest on how to make your own!

* Travel Changing Pads and Bibsters!

*Baby Powder!
Thanks to pinterest I found out that baby powder is a must have for visits to the beach. Sprinkle baby powder on them and the sand rubs right off!! Dax especially appreciated this because he was not a fan of baby powder being stuck to his legs!

* New Toys!
Before going I stocked up on a bunch of small, cheap new toys for Dax to play with on the ship (play dough, painters tape, a fold and car set, small zoo animals, nesting cups, funnels). They were new so he was super excited about them and they were all small so they didn't take up much space in the suitcase. I made sure not to give them to him all at once so I had new things to offer him throughout the week. The painters tape was super fun to pull and tear and stick to things and  the nesting cups and funnels were fun to stack. Our most expensive toy purchase was this...

(Sorry for the blurry picture... best one I could find) It cost a total of $10. The ramps fold up so it didn't take much space at all!


Well those are my must have items to pack for long trips! They were life savers for sure! I'll be posting soon with a few more travel tips that made our vacation successful!

Extreme Makeover Classroom Edition: It's in the details...

So in addition to the dry erase board and library decor, here are a few more of my favorite details of the room... all of which were homemade and super, super cheap!

 This table set up was super cheap. The bamboo placemat was a set of four found at Ross for like $5.00 (for four). The vase with flowers I put together with materials from Dollar Tree for a total of $3.00. The napkins were a set of two at Dollar Tree for $1.00, and the napkin rings were homemade by me using construction paper, twine, and hot glue.

 Our construction pictures in our construction area. The kids love the pictures and it was a great use of this "climbing" space.

 Here's the other placemat! It looks adorable under these wooden instruments I scored in the dollar section at Target!

 So this is on our sign in table! If you notice the upper right corner you see ribbon that I put around the dry erase board. I thought it made it look a little less cold and more welcoming. I also wanted something cute to put pens in for the parents. I had clear plastic cups so dressed it up using a little twine, ribbon, hot glue, and a couple flowers left over from the table project.

 And yet another placemat makes and appearance in science. The plant was perfect for this small shelf in science and the placemat just made it look that much cuter! Around the edges of the shelf are science related books.

 You know me and my pinecones... had to throw a couple in somewhere! 

Our writing desk! Isn't this little bitty desk adorable?!  I think it's possibly the cutest piece of furniture I've ever seen.  I added an alphabet sign I found in the room around the top to try and encourage some practice with forming letters. Also got the little pen holder at Dollar Tree... if you can't tell I LOVE that place!

 So I don't have a great picture.... but I wanted to mention the twine I used to hold the curtains back!  I didn't think to buy anything to pull the curtains back with on each side so as a spur of the moment fix I just tied a nice big bow on each side with twine. I love the way it turned out!

And the last thing..... "Our Plan" chart, "Helper Chart", and our classroom agreements. The pictures on the plan chart will be replaces with pictures of the kids doing the activities and a little star will move along the pictures as we come to each activity in the day. Our helper chart with feature a picture of each child held up with the clothespins by their job for the week.


Well that's the end of my classroom takeover on the blog!! I'm sure I'll be posting about new things here and there as the days go on but for now we'll be back to the usual post about life and Dax :)

LOVE

This house was full of love this year...  and for some reason I felt way more into Valentines day than I usually do.... maybe having two valentines makes it that much more exciting :) 

Dax fingerpainted the Valentines for his classroom and teachers.

Not only did he love doing it.... but they turned out super cute and didn't cost a thing!  I just cut the  paper in strips, folded them to be able the size of valentines, and wrote Happy Valentines Day inside. They were perfect. For his teachers we did some that were about the size of 5x7's and fixed up a little goody bag of treats.

Now here's how Valentine's Day morning looked at our house this year...

Daniel leaves the house at about 4:30 to head to the hospital each morning. I stayed up late the night before and got all these goodies ready and left this note...

The white teddy bear was from Dax (you could squeeze it's hand and it was a little kids voice saying "i love you soooo much" and making kiss sounds. adorable) and the rest was from me.  He also has a new messenger bag with his initials monogrammed on it on it's way as well (for overnight stays at the hospital).
The "i love you because" frame was an idea from pinterest!  I made my own version with a plain black frame I had at home and some scrapbook paper.  I wanted to make the frame a little cuter so I decided to get a little craft :)

Again, this was all just stuff I had at the house so that was super convenient. I had the stencil so I just sponged on some acrylic paint and here you have the finished product....

I'm really happy with how it turned out! It will be fun to keep around the house so we can write things on it to one another every now and then :) (ps if you haven't seen the pin on pinterest you just use a dry erase marker to write a message on it).

Daxton got the most adorable stuffed monkey and some new big boy forks and spoons for Valentines Day from mommy and daddy. I got surprise with roses and guirardelli chocolates... and the best part..... a morning of sleeping in and room service with Daniel in a couple weeks!  We've decided the thing we miss the most about not having kids is being able to sleep until noon on Saturdays together. Our little boy wakes up by 6 most mornings.... so in at least 18 months.... we have not slept past that.  Also in 18 months.... I have yet to leave Dax overnight. Crazy huh??  So to make that a little easier on both him and me, Daniel's parents will come to our house and spend the night with Dax there while we have our night getaway in downtown Tulsa. I'm pretty excited about it.... ok... maybe a lot excited about it (I mean sleeping in.....room service... what's not exciting?!)  It's the little things when you become a parent.... no need for expensive gifts and diamonds.... just a good nights sleep is all it takes to make this momma happy!

Extreme Makeover: Classroom Edition Part 2

Here is probably my favorite project for my new classroom.... and I will def. do this in any of my future children's rooms....

I found this jewel in my classroom while going through old books.

It had gorgeous pictures in it and is such a classic that I wanted to display some of the artwork in my room.   I also had a ton of these that I bought on sale at HobbyLobby with no plans in store for them..

And remember the burlap I used to cover my dry erase board??  Well I had about 50,000 yards left of that (I may be exaggerating... just slightly). So I cut burlap to fit over each circle, leaving maybe about an inch around the edges..

After closing them all up they ended up looking like this...

I already thought these looked pretty cute with just burlap alone.... but I went ahead and picked out some of my favorite images from the book and tore them out to fit on the circles. They.looked.perfect. Better than I expected that's for sure!   I used Alene's Tacky Glue  (which I'm 95% sure I've talked about on here before because I'm that in love with it)  to put the pictures on the burlap and it hasn't let me down yet.
Well drum roll please.... because here they are...

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all" --Jacqueline Kennedy

Be looking out for Extreme Makeover: Classroom Edition Part 3 in the near future!!!

Extreme Makeover: Classroom Edition

So the past week I have been working hardcore on this mess called a classroom I've been given. I walked into a classroom full of junk (literally... that's what most of it was) that had been used a storage for a range of infants-4 year olds, and was told to turn it into a room for 2-3 year olds. Whoa. It was super overwhelming at first but I'm really happy with how it's coming along. Here is one of the projects I've been working on this past week...

This big beauty eyesore was hanging smack dab in the middle of the room. Not cute. And completely useless for a class of two year olds. My friend Jennifer gave me the brilliant idea of covering it with burlap so from there I came up with this...

These adorable vintage-y letters were a pinterest find (free printables...yes please!) On the lower half of the board I'll display some of the kids art. I think it turned out super cute and def. softened the feel of the room!